L.A.'s top chefs turn out to fight, 'bite' hunger at food bank

CaptionL.A.'s food community joins forces to fight hunger

Rene Lynch / Los Angeles Times

L.A.'s top chefs, celebrities, bloggers and other members of the food community turned out Saturday to volunteer at the L.A. Regional Food Bank. Among them: Actress Valerie Bertinelli ("Hot in Cleveland") and pop-up chef Ludo Lefebvre.

L.A.'s top chefs, celebrities, bloggers and other members of the food community turned out Saturday to volunteer at the L.A. Regional Food Bank. Among them: Actress Valerie Bertinelli ("Hot in Cleveland") and pop-up chef Ludo Lefebvre. (Rene Lynch / Los Angeles Times)

The chef-owner at Ink was among dozens of L.A. chefs, celebrities, food bloggers and more who showed up at the food bank early Saturday morning as part of an event organized by L.A. Bites Hunger co-founder Jo Stougaard, perhaps better known as the voice behind My Last Bite.

"It's disturbing to think of how many people go without," Voltaggio said. "I'm glad I can do something small to help out."

Voltaggio joined actress and cookbook author Valerie Bertinelli, as well as fellow celebuchefs Ludo Lefebvre, barbecue king Adam Perry Lang, author Lucy Lean and dozens of others who spent the morning sorting good fruit from bad, and then packing it up for shipments to food pantries throughout Los Angeles.

Such physical volunteer work is crucial to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which relies on the kindness of 32,000 volunteers a year to keep the operation running.

"Without the volunteers, our work would come to a halt," said spokeswoman Jennifer Errico, adding that it was great to see such a strong turnout from Los Angeles' food scene bright and early Saturday morning. "We could never hire enough people to cover 32,000 volunteers a year."

The food bank welcomes groups, individuals and companies that want to volunteer for a morning or afternoon shift. "We've had people come out and work for their birthday parties, and bachelor parties. All their friends come out and help," Errico said.

The food bank serves more than 1 million people a year, she said. Volunteer opportunities also include putting together packages for the Friday afternoon "backpack program," which sends 1,000 needy children home with enough food to last the weekend. And each month, more than 20,000 such care packages are put together for senior citizens in Los Angeles County who are at risk for going hungry.

In addition to looking for volunteers, the bank also welcomes donations. "For every dollar donated, we provide four meals," Errico said. She said the pantry is also always on the lookout for staples such as peanut butter, beans, rice, pasta and canned meats.

One out of every six people in Los Angeles County experiences hunger from a lack of available food, Errico said. "And it’s not who you expect to be hungry," she said, adding that often it's the working poor. "It's people who have families but they just can’t get through the end of the month."

Bertinelli said she was grateful to Stougaard for organizing the event, and raising awareness about hunger. "Too many people are going without," she said.

A burst of thunderstorm activity across the Chicago area on Sunday afternoon resulted in a death and multiple injuries at an event in west suburban Wood Dale, the collapse of a dome in northwest suburban Rosemont and the temporary evacuation of the music festival Lollapalooza in Grant Park downtown.

The father of a 20-year-old Carol Stream, Ill., woman who drowned at Indiana's Porter Beach on Friday night identified her body Sunday afternoon after a rescue team pulled her from Lake Michigan, authorities said.